Out of Time
by Pusillanimity
Summary: For all intents and purposes, Leo never expected to be launched into the future. With one of his closest friend's life on the line, he's issued a new quest to save their life. Set ten years in the future. Mild language, technically speaking.
1. Chapter 1

**Sporadic updates, but hopefully I'll finish this one. Expect an update probably once a month.**

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><p>Out of all the places to crash land, this was possibly one of the best.<p>

Festus' wing had been pierced by a projectile. He didn't know exactly what it was, but he'd check it out as soon as he crashed.

It's probably not a good idea to crash, but you make what you can of the situation.

It was a large clearing, illuminated by a full moon. It was snowing lightly, and the surrounding treetops were covered in it. Streaks of silver flashed in front of his eyes, as a large lumbering beast ran as fast as it could.

_Nice_, Leo thought, _an audience_.

With his luck though, the Hunters were probably hunting somewhere in Europe.

He angled Festus' flight path to hit the monster to save the Hunters work from chasing it down.

10...9...8...

Festus' wings spread out to glide down.

7...6...5...

Leo made final checks on his and Calypso's seat belts, and the airbags under Festus' neck plates.

4...3...2...

This was going to be _so _much cooler than Percy's coming back from the death scene.

1.

Unless, of course, it hurt.

Festus roared, and the monster turned around.

Of course, this probably was the thing that hit Festus, considering that it had spikes on its back with some spots where spikes would go a few places. Revenge was a dish best served warm though.

Festus launched fiery breath onto the monster.

_CRASH_.

The monster poofed into golden dust and crumbled, as Festus skidded into a snowbank nearby.

"Woohoo! Score one for Team Leo!" He called out triumphantly.

The Hunters circled around him, arrows pointed at them.

"I don't think this was the best time for that Leo," Calypso said warningly.

"Nonsense, Sunshine. Where's my girl Thalia around here?" He asked the Hunters.

"Leo?" Her voice spoke out among the Hunters.

"'Your girl' Leo? Is she one of your girlfriends?" Calypso questioned him.

"Hades no, Callie. She'd die if she had to date me. Literally and figuratively, I guess," he answered.

Thalia stepped out from the trees, as did the rest of the Hunters.

"You died, Leo..." She murmured.

Meanwhile, the Hunters began whispering to themselves. "Was this really the Leo Valdez of legend?"

"Well, obviously not, Thalia! I'm perfectly fine, you see," he said, hopping off Festus and gesturing to himself.

"Are you really alive?" Thalia asked.

"Of course I am! I'm more alive than I could ever be!"

She took a few steps until they were face to face with each other. They were close enough that he could kiss her (not that he wanted to).

Thalia raised her arm, as if to stroke his cheek, then slapped him hard enough to send him sprawling into the sand.

"Ten years, Leo! Ten years, they grieved for you. Ten years, Jason wondered where you ended up. Ten years, Nico spent, looking aimlessly in the Underworld! And here you are, perfectly fine, ruining our entire operation!" Thalia shouted.

"Ten years?" He asked out in shock. "You look the exact same! What's your secret?" He asked.

"Don't play stupid with me, Valdez!" She walked up and grabbed him by the scruff of his shirt, lifting him up in the air. "Are you working for them?"

"Who? What? No, I'm not working for anyone! I don't even know what's going on! Ruining your operation? Game over, I killed the bad guy!" Leo protested.

"We were on a mission to capture him for interrogation." She glared at him.

From the Hunters, a girl called out. "Can we just kill him and get on with it?"

Calypso, by this point had stepped off of Festus as well, and held her hands up. "No, no, no. Killing is a bad idea."

"Yeah! I need to catch up with Jason. If it's been ten years, he's sure to have missed me by now, right?"

Thalia considered both of these options. "It would be in rather bad taste to kill you... But I have bad news."

"What is it? Have he and Piper gotten hitched yet? Did they do the thing where they named one of their kids after me?"

Thalia said nothing, and walked away, leaving Leo no choice but to follow her, with Festus lumbering behind them.

Leo ended walked for gods-know-how-long, in who-knows-where, until they reached familiar ground. The Forest of Camp Half Blood.

He kept asking questions to Thalia.

"Are there laser guns yet? Flying cars? Laser-death satellites?" He asked.

"No, no, and no, Leo. I don't even want to know where that last one came from."

"Aw, come on Thalia. _Star Wars_? Never heard of it? That's no moon, it's a space station!" He said, pointing at the moon feigning shock.

"Would that make Artemis the goddess of space stations?" Calypso inquired from beside him.

"Yes! Totally! That would be awesome!" He shouted, and gave her a high-five.

Thalia sighed, and they kept walking until they reached Camp Half-Blood, for real.

It definitely wasn't like last winter, where everything was fun and games, even up until the world was scheduled to end. Camp, instead, had grim, moody, feel, which contrasted horribly with the Christmas lights.

Thalia dismissed her Hunters into the Artemis cabin, and led Leo and Calypso to a house off a beaten path, away from the majority of camp.

"Go on in, guys. I can't even bring myself to look."

Leo knocked on the door, since he figured it would be polite. And, y'know, he didn't want to walk in on them doing _it_. The thought bothered his mind, but they were adults now.

Piper, who had bags under her eyes and her usual lack of make up plus a little more height, opened the door. Without looking up, she said, "You guys know what's happening. Nothing's changed, for better or worse."

"Come on, Pipes! Have ya' missed me?" He called out.

She refused to look up. "Connor, Travis, this is a new low for you guys."

"Would Connor and Travis do this?" He asked, and pulled out a pinwheel and blew on it in her general direction.

Her eyes snapped up in rage, "I swear, I'll make you- Leo?" She asked in shock.

"The one and only!" He called out in pride.

She gave a sad grin. "Not anymore," she whispered. She led him and Calypso inside.

This house definitely looked more homely than Jason's old lodgings at the Zeus cabin. Piper, or whoever, was an excellent interior designer, and the neat, precise way the house was built just screamed "Annabeth!"

Piper walked into a room, and gestured for them to walk inside. It was a nursery. A little baby was sleeping quietly in a crib. The walls were a mural, with scenes that he absolutely did remember, and ones he had no idea about. He was even in sone of them.

"This is Leo," she said to them, watching a crib with a little baby in it.

"Hi Leo," he said to the boy, "I'm you. Or me. Whatever. I'm Leo."

"How old is he?" Calypso asked.

"Uh, I'm sorry, but do I know you from somewhere?" Piper questioned curiously.

"No, no, you don't. She's a friend I picked up along the way," Leo quickly said.

"Right. Can she see through the-" Piper began.

"Yeah, I can. I'm... Leo's friend," Calypso said.

"Okay then. I'll go make us some tea, and we can talk then."

"Tea? Piper, honey, you are not at that age yet. Let's all have some coffee, or something."

"Caffeine? Leo, you're already way too hyper."

"Nonsense," he said to her, "We're in the future. Caffeine should have been fazed out by now."

She gave him a grin. "Alright, we'll go have some coffee."

Unfortunately for Leo, it was not a pumpkin spice latte, but Piper's coffee was still pretty good. He sipped contently as Piper asked some more questions.

"So, who are you?" She asked Calypso.

"Oh, I'm just some Titaness who Leo somehow managed to drag along on a crazy journey while doing something that nobody else had done before," she replied.

"That sounds like something Leo would do. But, uh, I was just looking for your name." Piper said.

"Oh, that's easy. She's Callie," Leo answered.

"Calyspo," the aforementioned Titaness corrected.

"Calypso?" Piper asked in disbelief.

"Leo!" He shouted.

"Leo, be quiet, you'll wake Leo," Calypso scolded.

"Right. Sorry. So, where's Jason? He'll sure have a laugh or two once he gets over the fact that I'm not dead," Leo joked.

"Jason... he, uh... he... It's better if you look for yourself."

"Okay, Beauty Queen. Lead the way." He said, with a sweeping motion.

Piper got up, and walked up the house's stairs, and down one room to the left, where they found him.

Leo definitely aged better than Jason. The son of Jupiter was bed-ridden, and according to Piper, in a com"What happened, Piper?" He asked quietly.

"I don't know. One day, he was planning a trip to build another shrine, and the next, he's in a coma," she whispered.

"How bad is it?" Calypso inquired.

"Very bad. By current estimates..." Piper said, trailing off.

"By current estimates, what?" Leo asked.

"He'll die by the end of the month," she said, holding back a sob.

"The end of the month? Oh gods. What day is today?" Leo questioned.

"The uh, seventh of November," Piper said.

"Only the seventh? We've practically got an entire month Pipes! We can go on a quest, and..." Leo exclaimed.

"No, we can't. Rachel's Oracle powers haven't been working since you... Since you've died. And even if somehow, your coming here fixed that, I still have to take care of Leo."

"Oh. Right, Piper. I'll get going and see if what I can do."

"Alright then Leo. I'll see you later."

As he got up to leave, there was a frantic knocking on the door.

"Are you expecting anyone Piper?" Leo asked.

She shook her head.

"Okay, I'll go see who it is," he told her. "Come on Callie, let's go greet the visitors!"

They walked down the stairs and through the hall to reach the door. The knocking never stopped, and increased in tempo and volume. Finally, they opened the door, and a young boy, who was knocking on the door stumbled forward. Leo caught him before he could hit the floor.

"Thanks, ma'am," the boy said.

"Gee, that's swell and all, but I'm not a woman," Leo replied.

The boy took a step back, and asked "Woah. Who are you? Nobody's supposed to be around here."

"Just an old friend of the people who live here. Can I take a message?" Leo questioned.

"I was told to deliver this message personally," the boy said.

"Come on, can't you trust me?" Leo whined.

"No," the boy answered.

"Spoilsport," Leo muttered, "Back in my day, people were as lazy as they wanted to be!"

He turned around and walked back through the hall, leaving Calypso with the boy.

"So, how was your day?" She asked him.

"I've had worse," he said and shrugged. He then held out his hand to shake hers. "Kyle Jaeger, and you?"

She tenatively took it. "Calypso."

Before the boy could ask for her surname, Leo came back with Piper. "There, can we have the message?"

"Can I just tell it to her?" Kyle asked.

"Oh my gods," Leo said.

"It's fine, Kyle. I'd tell him anyways. What is it?" Piper asked tiredly.

"Well, there's been a prophecy, and from what we can tell, Mr. Grace might be cured."


	2. Chapter 2

**I think this is one of my fastest update times.**

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><p><strong>Leo<strong>

Leo struggled to keep up with Kyle and Piper as they walked briskly-no, ran slowly to the Big House.

"Hey, guys, wait up! Dead man walking here, aren't zombies supposed to be slow?" He called out to them.

Piper flashed a grin at him, "Better keep up, Grease Monkey." She sped up, and Kyle caught up to her, leaving him in the dust.

"Grease Monkey? When did she come up with that?" Leo asked himself. He slowed himself down, because _gods _his joints were sore. Coming back from the dead and riding a dragon for ten years really made his joints lock up.

He cursed to himself and finally decided to walk at an old man's pace. He took the time to take in his surroundings and see what new things had been developed while he was gone.

Camp Half-Blood was still an anti-electronics place, but Leo could see some differences. The LED Christmas lights shone brighter and a little more vividly than ten years ago. One or two kids had smartphone-looking things in their hands, though Leo couldn't tell whether those were actually phones or not.

The smartphone kids all had something in common though- they were all headed to the Big House, the same place he was going. Intrigued, he strode over to one of the fast-walking campers.

"Hey, whatcha got there?" He asked the kid.

"Oh, it's a-" the kid said before stopping himself. "Hey. I don't know you."

"I'm a new camper, that's all," Leo quickly fibbed.

"Really, then? What cabin?" The kid questioned.

Leo was tempted to answer Hephaestus, but if times were still like they were before, there were only a few campers in that cabin. "Hermes," he quickly said.

The kid grinned, "Well, nice to meet you. I'm Alex, counselor of the Poseidon cabin." Alex seemed to be a taller than Leo (which was no surprise at all), and had the tell-tale sea-green eyes that Percy had. His skin was tanned, but he was more lean than ripped, and definitely a little jumpy, as if he was ready to stab Leo in a moment's notice. As for his age, Leo guessed it was about 16. Right about how old he was, technically.

"Cool. I'm, uh, Juan," Leo quickly responded.

"Alright Juan. Well, this box right here is like an I-messenger- you do know what that is right-" Leo quickly nodded yes to this, and Alex continued, "It's in the beta right now, but it should be out for everyone next year. This baby was based off of Leo Valdez's designs," he boasted.

"Leo Valdez?" He asked about himself.

"Yeah. One of the Seven, who were supposed to save the world and stuff. He's the only one to have died, but there are rumors that he's still around, kind of like Elvis," Alex explained.

"Wow. So, where are you going?" Leo inquired, even though he already knew the answer.

Alex slapped himself on the forehead. "That's right. Counselor meeting. I'll catch you later Juan!" The son of Poseidon ran off in the direction of the Big House.

Leo watched as Alex flashed his I-messenger to two armed guards outside of the Big House.

"Armed guards? We didn't get that deep in the War," Leo muttered to himself.

He supposed he could try to bluff his way through, but the guards were probably Ares kids. When he said Ares, he didn't mean "big fluffy panda" Frank, but instead "giant murderous grizzly" Clarisse.

So that plan was out of the way. Guards were posted around the building, covering all ground exits.

Ground exits was the key term.

Leo's fire had some unique properties. It didn't push back at him, which meant he could summon a huge fireball and not be sent flying back, but it also meant that he couldn't be the Human Torch and fly away.

Fortunately he was still Commander Toolbelt, and he never started things with a plan.

Quickly assembling a propeller using some assorted materials and rubber bands, he created a helmet-copter.

Praying to Hephaestus along the way, he plopped it onto his head and yanked the start cord. "Go, go, gadget!" He called out.

The copter, either by sheer luck or skill, Leo didn't know, began to take off and he tumbled into an open window in the attic.

The attic was honestly not too strange, from the usual death, murder, and secrets that Leo often encountered. It was filled with boxes. Leo walked over to one and opened it up.

Inside was a golden medallion, with Roman symbols on it. He flipped it to the other side. On it was a label, which read: _Octavian's Medallion: Retrieved by Praetor Frank Zhang, dedicated to Leo Valdez._

The_ feels _in that one statement was enough for Leo. This, he supposed, was one of the reasons he was "panda bear" Zhang. He stepped back, and leaned over to put the medallion back into the box.

Unfortunately, his feelings got the better of him, and his feet had singed the floor. The wood under him collapsed, and he found himself in the shattered remains of the Ping-Pong table, staring at some not-too-happy counselors and one very surprised Clovis.

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><p><strong>Alex<strong>

Alex definitely didn't know what to make of this new prophecy.

It had come out of the blue, and what he assumed to be an old myth was coming to life right before him. Of course, he was the son of a myth and fought monsters regularly, but it wasn't like he'd seen anything of these proportions before.

"Oh, and our friend Rachel sometimes goes kookoo for Cocoa Puffs, but that hasn't happened in a long time," they told him as he was given a tour of the camp.

The prophecy was still intriguing nonetheless- _schist_, he was starting to sound like one of those Athena kids.

_You will be joined by the living dead,_

_In a journey to save faith's head._

_Wisdom both your foe and friend,_

_The king's bane you will not end._

As of now, Alex was watching one of the scariest people he had known argue against the Camp nerd, and he wasn't too sure who was going to win.

"It's bright as day," Nico protested, "I'll go with Jules-Albert, we'll take an Athena kid who we can trust, and we'll go along doing whatever!"

Sam, the head counselor for Athena, shot this proposal down immediately. "Prophecies are supposed to have double-meanings! You don't even know where to go!" She replied.

"Ladies and gentlemen, calm yourselves down. We can debate this reasonably. How do you plan to solve the unending evil bit, Nico?" Paul, Cabin 1's counselor mediated.

"Unending doesn't mean invincible. There is more than one way to break a man," he said grimly.

"Or woman," Hannah from the Aphrodite cabin piped in.

"Or goat," Grover continued.

"Or..." Alyssa, counselor of Hermes Cabin began.

"Yes, yes, I get your point. Equal rights for everyone, we all win, yippee," Nico said sarcastically.

Ignoring that comment, Paul faced Sam. "And how do you plan to solve both where you're going and the living dead situation?"

She looked around the room for dramatic effect. "Hazel Levesque," she said.

Nico lunged for her, only to be held down by Paul and Alex, who _so_ wished he could've let him at her.

"Leave my sister out of it," he snarled.

"It's the only logical choice, Nico. Living dead? She died before," Sam cooly replied.

"She's had enough to deal with already!"

"I think you're being overprotective," Alyssa slowly said.

"What?" Nico shot back.

Alyssa shrunk back, unwilling to go up against the Son of Hades.

"She's right," Sam said.

"I am?" Alyssa asked incredulously.

"We haven't even asked Hazel yet, and Nico is trying to say 'no' for her," Sam stated.

"Leave her out of it," Nico commanded, "Find some other resurrected soul to do this!" He then broke free from their grip and stormed out the room.

"Alright. If you couldn't use Hazel, who would you use Sam?" Paul asked.

The Athena counselor shrugged, "We don't know how many people made it through the Doors of Death. Monsters don't keep records."

Paul nodded. "We'll decide on our course of action later. Let's take a break guys."

The counselors gave a hearty cheer, and all got up from the table. They began filing out the door when a loud _BANG_ alerted to the intruder.

Alex, who was at the end of the line, turned around to see what exactly it was.

There, on the shattered remains of the table, was Juan, groaning and moaning.

He was also fairly sure that Clovis was somewhere under there too.

Blake Thomas, the Ares counselor, called in his guards and they hauled Juan off.

As the still-groaning Latino passed him, Alex had only one thing to say to him. "Your name isn't Juan, is it?"

The series of events that passed were rather routine after that. Blake, who would've found some other reason to yell at the guards, disciplined them for letting Juan in. Clovis still slept.

Camp activities continued as normal. Dinner, Sing-A-Longs, and border patrol.

Of course, most people would've turned in if they weren't watching the border. Heck, some of those people were sleeping now.

But for the counselors, they still had to address the situation with Juan.

To their credit, not a single word was uttered about the incident. To their discredit, not a single word was uttered to Chiron or Mr. D.

They currently had Juan tied up in Rachel's cave. Rachel, after her first prophecy in ten years, was in a coma-like state, though Chiron assured everyone that it was _totally_ fine and _nobody_ should worry about it.

So Juan, tied up with seven different ropes, fourteen different knots, and handcuffed, was held tight in the cave for the day.

It definitely came as a shock to him when they went to interrogate him later that night when he wasn't there.


End file.
